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ISIS Calls for Poisoning and Running Down Westerners

Terrorist group calls on Muslims in the West to do their duty.

In a new video, ISIS threatens to murder Westerners through a wide range of new means, including poisoning of food and drink and hit-and-run attacks. This marks an increase in ambitious threats as ISIS (also known as Islamic State, ISIL, and Daesh) calls on Muslims to wage “jihad in the path of Allah” using easily accessible weapons.

The seven-minute video, entitled, What Are You Waiting For, opens with a group of Francophone ISIS fighters denouncing the West and throwing their French passports into campfire. French is the spoken language in the video, which also contains Arabic and English subtitles. One jihadi known as Abu Osama Al-Faranci, states: “This is a message from your French brothers who have made Hijra, to the Muslims who are still living in the land of Kufr.” In other words, it is an appeal by ISIS fighters who have emigrated to lands controlled by the Islamic State to Muslims living in the land of the infidelity.

Though the fighters in the video mostly speak to Muslims living in France, they also have a broader audience in mind; for instance, Abu Maryam al-Franci addresses “those Muslims in France and elsewhere.”

The jihadis featured in the video implore Muslims to make “Hijra” and emigrate to lands controlled by the Islamic State. But if Muslims do not emigrate, Abu Maryam (holding a machine gun and a machete) reminds them, “Indeed you have been ordered to fight the Kafir [unbeliever/non-Muslim] wherever you find him” and encourages Muslims in the West to attack civilians in their home countries.

Abu Salman al-Faranci introduces new methods to entice potential terrorists living in the West to commit murder in France, telling them to “terrorize them and do not allow them to sleep due to fear and horror.” Abu Salman continues, “There are weapons and cars available and targets ready to be hit… Kill them [infidels] and spit in their faces and run over them with your cars.” He goes on: “Even poison is available, so poison the water and food of at least one of the enemies of Allah.” Abu Maryam hopes that infidels “will even fear travelling to the market.”

ISIS has proven itself successful at recruiting thousands of fighters from Western countries to join its ranks. Should this resonance continue and jihadis living in the West heed the new ISIS call, it would have dire consequences for non-jihadi Muslims; any driver, waiter, or grocery clerk could be perceived as a terrorist in waiting. For all of us, ISIS’ latest message hopes to turn a stroll down the street into a walk of terror and to turn our food and drinks into recipes for murder.

Danielle Avel is an investigative researcher and photojournalist. She can be reached through her website, on Twitter @DanielleAvel and on Facebook.